This is the 125th anniversary of the birth
of Patrick Joseph Medlar, Dublin City Councillor 1920-24 and
1930-42. Although he was seen as a native Dubliner , PJ was
actually born on the Upper Ballyellin Lock, near
Goresbridge, in Co. Carlow, among his mother’s
people, the Brennans. His father was a blacksmith from
nearby Paulstown, in Co. Kilkenny, who then lived in Dublin,
and after the birth of his two children went to the USA to
find work, with the intention of then sending for the
family. Unfortunately he died there soon after his arrival,
and his wife Ellen was then adrift with two children to
raise. She farmed out the children to their grandparents,
Larry to Ballyellin, and PJ to Paulstown, while she went
back into domestic service, this time in 22 Merrion Square,
Dublin. This was the household of Samuel Mason, Professor of
Midwifery at the College of Surgeons. The house has recently
been restored and extended and still keeps its connection
with the College of Surgeons by housing the College of
Anaesthetists. Ellen remarried in 1897 and PJ returned to
Dublin. He started as a messenger, became a registration
agent, married my Granny’s sister, Tess Burgess, and was
soon in the undertaking business. His premises, at 48a
James’s Street, served both as an office/shop and sometime
accommodation. My Granny, Sarah Burgess, lived there briefly
after her husband was drowned in the Liffey in 1918.

P.J.
was the sole tenant of the premises from 1916 to 1918. He
went into partnership with another city undertaker, Charles
Claffey, between 1919 and 1927, when the business was listed
as Medlar and Claffey. And, following his breakup with
Claffey in 1927, it reverted to Medlar Undertakers until his
retirement in 1942.

PJ has appeared in Dublin city folklore. One
lady, for instance, told me that there was a phrase in her
family if someone sneezed: “The Medlar’s Gotcha!”; though
she was unaware that Medlar was the undertaker. Again, Pete
St. John, in Jaysus Wept, quotes some lines from, his own
composition, the Inchicore Wake: “And Bigamy O’Keeffe, and
Black Paddy Medlar, with Claffey were talking’ of
gravestones and flowers”.

PJ used his hearses and other vehicles to
drive Republican prisoners to their homes after their
release under the Treaty in 1921. He promoted the “Medlar
Bridge”, linking Maryland and Upper Basin Street, during his
time on the Council. He opened the Tivoli Theatre in Francis
Street, which is still hanging on by the skin of its teeth.

PJ’s Paulstown cousins were a Republican
lot. Larry was sentenced to death by the British for a raid
on Gowran Barracks and having 39 sticks of gelignite in the
eaves along with a whack of papers compromising the Kilkenny
Brigade IRA. The court rejected Larry’s three pronged
innovative defence: a spurious alibi from his father; a
ridiculous note from his doctor; and an unbelievable resort
to “force majeure”. However, Larry walked when the Treaty
was signed but went straight back into internment when he
took up arms against the Free State Government. Cousin
Martin became a Fianna Fáil TD, 1956-65. And Peggy was a
well known Irish dancing teacher in Dublin.

When PJ died in 1949, he had a glass panel
put in the lid of his coffin through which you could see his
face. He said this was in imitation of Constance Markievicz.

You can read more about PJ in the talk I
gave at the Family History Day held at the Dublic City
Library and Archives on 27 March 2010: ‘The Medlar’s
Gotcha’.

Pól Ó Duibhir is a retired civil servant
with an interest in family and local history.

Source: By Pue's
Occurrences (The Irish History Blog)

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